Last year, Monotone Art Printers in Hobart celebrated its centenary, making it one of the oldest print shops in the country - but recently the company came together to celebrate the future rather than the past to welcome two new Future Print apprentices to the fold.
Joshua Lockley, print finishing apprentice, and Thomas Manten, apprentice print machinist, gathered with the company’s 17 other staff to celebrate with local Tassie fare and to hear Graham Thomas, Future Print Advisor for Tasmania and Steve Walsh, AMWU State Organiser, speak about the significance of the project and the importance of these two new employees to the business.
According to Caroline Percival-Brown, general manager, these latest apprenticeships are another example of Monotone’s ability to commit to the future in a history that has been characterised by innovation and transformation to meet changing market conditions.
“In the early days, we printed newspapers and racing form guides, which were delivered by our own fleet of boys on bicycles,” she said. “We then diversified into flat sheet letterpress, printing docket books and stationery, and later made the move into offset, opening the door to colour work. Today, we have added digital print and a full range of finishing services including binding and laminating, to offer our clients a true ‘one stop shop’.”
This constant progression has been counterbalanced by the stability of the company itself, with only four managing directors in its entire 100-year history and a track record of long-serving employees. A good number of those, like Josh and Tom, started as apprentices, so Caroline is well placed to comment on the new Future Print system.
“We strongly believe that training young people builds a sound foundation, not only for our business but for the industry as a whole, but in recent times we’ve found apprenticeships to be something of a battle," she said.
“Four years is a long time, the pay is not great, and many young people struggle to keep their motivation going, so we were very keen to look into the new Future Print model of competency based training.”
After discussions with Graham Thomas the company decided to take the plunge and, while locating their apprentices in different spheres – Josh through Future Print’s apprentice matching scheme and Tom via an ad on Gumtree – signed both under the new model.
The boys commenced with the company in February; Josh is working under the watchful eye of print finishing specialist, Chris Reeman and Tom under the supervision of print machinist, Rick Holubnytschyj. Caroline reports they are progressing well, saying the new competency-based training model has made all the difference.
“The contrast couldn’t be clearer to me,” she said. “Their attitude and motivation is so much more positive because the Future Print model puts the onus back on the apprentices – they know the harder they work the more quickly they’ll progress. These two are very keen and, with dedication and persistence, there’s a real chance they could qualify in under three years; in fact, I might just challenge them to be the very first Future Print apprentices to graduate, that should keep them going!”
For more information about Future Print, go to www.futureprint.org.au